Don't let them bug you! - Cool Australia

Activity Introduction

Quick summary: Students locate, observe and record their observations of insects or minibeasts in a school ground or garden environment.

Learning goals:

Students record their observations, which includes a diagram.

Australian Curriculum Mapping

Content descriptions:

Year 1 Science

Represent and communicate observations and ideas in a variety of ways such as oral and written language, drawing and role play (ACSIS029)
Living things have a variety of external features (ACSSU017)

Year 1 English

Create short imaginative and informative texts that show emerging use of appropriate text structure, sentence-level grammar, word choice, spelling, punctuation and appropriate multimodal elements, for example illustrations and diagrams (ACELY1661)

Year 2 Science

Represent and communicate observations and ideas in a variety of ways such as oral and written language, drawing and role play (ACSIS042)

Year 2 English

Create short imaginative, informative and persuasive texts using growing knowledge of text structures and language features for familiar and some less familiar audiences, selecting print and multimodal elements appropriate to the audience and purpose (ACELY1671)

Syllabus Outcomes: ST1-4WS, ST1-10LW, EN1-2A.

Topic: Biodiversity

Year levels: 1 and 2

Indoor or outdoor activity: Outdoor

Time required: 45 mins

Learning areas addressed: Science.

Resources required: Printed worksheets, art materials.

Homework and extension opportunities: This activity can be repeated as homework.

Keywords: insects, minibeasts, invertebrates, garden, pond.

Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.

Worksheets

Teacher Worksheet

Teacher preparation

This is meant to assist you with the activity as you may want to modify the activity to include all minbeasts:

Bugs – the word bug is used to describe a group of insects that have mouths that suck juices out of plants or other animals.
Insects – animals with six legs. Usually the last adult stage has wings.
Invertebrates – any complex animal that does not have a backbone. It includes insects, spiders, worms, sea stars, jelly fish, etc. For this age group the term minibeast is a good alternative.

Decide if the activity will focus on insects or minibeasts - Teachers may prefer to allow students to first observe the animals outdoors. Later, the animals are collected in bug catchers or petrie dishes for observation in the classroom.

Safety – Provide students with a ruler or something similar to poke around with when looking for insects so that they don't pick up dangerous insects.

Activity outline

Begin this activity by asking your class some of the follo

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Student Worksheet

Student Worksheet 1.

Before you head out into the garden, have a think about what insects you might find out there.

1. Draw a picture of what sort of insect you think you might find living in the garden.

2. Do you know the name of this insect?

3. What words can you think of to describe this insect? (At least four words.)

4. What other insects might you see in the garden while you’re out there?

5. Share your picture and thoughts about your insect with the person next to you.

Student Worksheet 2.

Now you’ve found an insect in the garden, fill out the questions below:

1. Draw a picture of what type of insect you have found.

2. Do you know what sort of insect it is?

3. With your partner, examine your picture, compare your drawings, and compare both your drawings with the insect in the garden.

4. Think up some questions to ask each other about the insect, such as, 'How many legs does the insect have?' Write these questions and your

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Activity: Don’t let them bug you!